Mum "We are NEVER doing this again"
Me " I have left school so no need to worry we won't anyway, but I swear you say that every year Mum"!
NSEA championships is the only competition that I have known Mum make wine the priority when packing!
The lead up to these championships had not gone well. I qualified Mulligan who ended up going back to the Dunsdons, Yara then took his place and then she got a strike injury to her tendon. So Hector had to step up to the plate having never done a novice test until the week before and Gail Stephens kindly lent me Beanie to do the jumping. Thankfully I hadn't had time to qualify for the JWS too!
Saturday morning dawned and our early start was delayed by a few hours because I was ill and Mum wanted me to rest. We decided to withdraw from the individual dressage warm up at lunchtime to give us more time to get there and me some rest time. Not sure I have ever withdrawn from a comp due to illness. It was obviously "Man Flu".
We arrived at Addington at 2pm. Although we had hook up we were parked roughly 50 feet away from it and told we had brought a really short lead. We hadn't and we have never had an issue before. It took them 6 hours to put us in a parking spot with hook up! Mum kept smiling at security in the vain hope it would make a difference and they would get us a spot sooner. Really on reflection if she had lost her temper and been generally irritating like some of the Mums there I think it would have had better effect. However in the process of building good relationships and trying to get them on side she learnt how to make toffee vodka and they all decided that we should have a party in the lorry. Mum had to back track very fast!
In the meantime we were told our stable numbers, only to find that there were already horses in them. Back we went to the stable manager who assured us they were our stables and there shouldn't be horses in them. We tracked down the owners of the horses who then moved them. Took our horses off the lorry, went to our stables and someone else I put their horse in there. There were 2 empty next to them so we put ours in there only to be told we were not allowed to do that! Anyway Hector took a huge dislike to the temporary stables, no way a horse of his class should be made to go in one of those! He reared up constantly and tried to get over the door, so out he came. Hector was totally wired, he has never been to a competition this big with so many people and I am sure the busy environment probably reminded him of when he was put in the sales in Ireland or something. The only way to calm him down was to get on him, which I did and he behaved perfectly. I think it just gave him some reassurance. Luckily Sarah Millard (Hector's owner) had her daughter Lila's pony in the main stable area so we did a swap. This was much more to his lordships liking and he decided he would calm down and stay put in that stable!
Meanwhile I was feeling worse by the minute and Mum pulled me out of the jumping that afternoon too! I rode Beanie quietly round instead and just had a little jump.
After putting the horses to bed Mum cooked us Salmon in Watercress Sauce, new potatoes and veg in the lorry and then we consumed a bar of Cadburys Oreo Dairy Milk between us and watched a DVD, (we know how to live) then Rupert Batting popped over for a gossip and we finally went to bed about midnight.
On Sunday dosed up with Day Nurse Mum and I got up at 6am to feed and muck out the horses by 7.30am I was on Hector warming up his muscles for the day ahead. We had a strict schedule of grooming, plaiting and tacking up. Eating went out the window for the day but we made up for it at the end of the day! Michael Rogers from http://www.mdr-photo.co.uk/ turned up to take photos even though he only just got back from New York. We were so glad to see him too, he really helped Mum out as she was literally on her knees by lunchtime and had hurt her back. There was so much to carry to and fro. Michael became photographer/pack horse!
It was not Farlington's day with the teams. In the Intermediate and Open SJ we finished as a team on 12 penalty points which was not enough to take us though. Everybody rode really well it was just bad luck. Then came the dressage - Hector rose to the occasion. This horse has only done 7 dressage tests in his life, he has only just developed his core strength and this was his 2nd ever Novice test. he was up against some of the top junior dressage horses in the country and he ended up coming 2nd in his section missing 1st by less than 1%/ Awesome, awesome horse. Everyone fell in love with him and I just felt so honoured to be riding him. I have Fiona Bigwood to thank for helping me over the last couple of weeks, I could not have done it without her awesome training.
How we packed up and got ready to go home I don't know it passed in a blur, I tried to stay awake on the journey home to help Mum, well that lasted about an hour, then I crashed. Finally after dropping Beanie off and sorting horses we stepped into the house at 11pm. Thank goodness we didn't make it through to the sj finals I think it would have been about 2am in the morning if we had.
And that is the end of the NSEA champs for me! Farlington has some fantastic riders, we have won and been placed in nearly every championships as a team. The highlight of all the years I have been doing them was when Sunny and I were Jumping with Style Champions at the age of 11 and Hectors 2nd place in his section this weekend has to be one of those moments I will also never forget, just because of his back story and the run up to the championships. Overall we have had fun, they usually provide Mum, Dad and I with lots of laughs particularly the pushy, stressy Mums, we usually end up feeling very sorry for the children..... until we see them having tantrums!
I have now lost my voice completely, I made it into work this morning but spent the afternoon in bed. That might be where I stay for the next couple of days.
I'll let you know how the toffee vodka turns out!!!
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